Friday November 1st, 2013

Posted at 1:38pm

The North Talbot Road bridge being built as seen in this file photo by Di Bedard

All unsafe girders built in various locations on the Herb Gray Parkway will be ripped out and replaced, the Province and the builders of the Parkway announced today.

The decision was made in the interests of “public safety” according to MPP Teresa Piruzza.

In early October, a committee to examine the safety and integrity of certain girders used on the parkway concluded that many of the 500 girders were not “safe and durable”.

Three-hundred of the 500 girders produced with “tack” welds were installed at various spots on the Parkway project.

Piruzza says the decision comes after tests were conducted using a process agreed to by both the province and the builders of the Parkway.

Joe Pickerill of the Windsor Essex Mobility Group, the builders of the Parkway, says “the decision to reject the Freyssinet girders was made as a result of new information that came to light in the course of ongoing inspections and destructive testing of selected Freyssinet girders, including the unauthorized use of materials in certain of the Freyssinet girders and other fabrication issues which were not adequately and accurately documented in Freyssinet’s quality control documentation.”

Pickerill says the decision to replace the girders was “unrelated to the use of tack welding in the assembly of the girders.”

The Windsor Essex Mobility Group will be replacing the girders at no expense to the Province.